SEOUL, Korea-SK Telecom, Korea’s largest mobile services provider, selected LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and Nortel Networks Ltd. to provide equipment to support new high-speed wireless broadband services throughout southern Korea.
SK Telecom’s commercial launch of UMTS services in Pusan, Korea’s second-largest city, and the southern provinces of Gyeongsang-do, Jeolla-do and Jeju Island is planned for November, with commercial launch of HSDPA following in early 2006.
The technology will allow SK Telecom to deliver feature-rich services like interactive games, music downloads, DVD-quality videos, real-time multimedia collaboration and e-mail with large file transfers at speeds of up to 14.4 megabits per second.
The contract is the second HSDPA win for LG and Nortel since the companies announced a joint venture earlier this year. The first contract was with KTF, the second-largest wireless carrier in Korea.
“The SK Telecom win is another important milestone for the LGE-Nortel joint venture, which will supply networks covering all cities and regions of the Korean peninsula,” said Peter MacKinnon, president of GSM/UMTS for Nortel. “The contract continues Nortel’s leadership in supplying UMTS/ HSDPA technology to Korea, which has the highest broadband penetration and one of the most sophisticated telecommunications markets in the world.”
Both SK Telecom and KTF have rolled out third-generation networks using both CDMA2000 and W-CDMA-based technology.
